The Gift of Laughter

Loving kids but having a language barrier is difficult. In Peru this past January, I loved being able to communicate in Spanish with relative ease . Creole is a different story, and all I know is "hello," "how are you," "my name is Melody," "what is your name," "red," "croissant," and the numbers 1-5. It has been an interesting first day to say the least. 

That being said, I'm thankful that God has blessed us with laughter as the universal language. When all else fails, tickling kids produces a positive response and develops a connection between you and the child. Science. Not so much, but it was fun to interact in that way without language.

Well, today we had day one of our vacation bible school- type program at a church in Haiti. The drive there was rough and bumpy-- it has been eye opening to see the huge cracks in pavement (remnants of the earthquake). Even devastating stories of several people that are directly involved in our mission work here makes me more aware of the brokenness forever caused by natural disasters but can ultimately only be healed by Jesus. For example, the pastor of the church we helped today is a modern day Job. He lost his wife and house in the earthquake , as well as the church he was pastoring. Our leader told us that the transformation of the gospel has been evident in his life in the past year or so. It is humbling to hear and see the joy and hope that the gospel brings despite horrible circumstances and suffering. 

A good portion of my day was spent one on one with a little friend whose name I cannot pronounce or remember. (When we ask their names in creole, they usually respond with their first , middle , and last names which makes it difficult to understand and remember). He has he biggest smile ever, struggles with walking and is non-verbal. So when most of the kids were running around playing games, I held both of his hands and followed him around the room, wherever he wanted to go. Even though he wasn't playing beach ball soccer with the other kids, he loved watching and would clap his hands and laugh along with them. When we first entered the church, he kept his bright smile and wide eyes the entire time-- the greatest welcome of all. One of our missions at Joni and Friends family retreat last week was to find the gift that our camper had, because focusing on the disability becomes easy in isolating situations. This little guy's gift is definitely his all-encompassing joy and contagious smile.

The rest of the morning, we tried to teach a counting math lesson (to a group of 50 kids ages 6 mths- 14 years) which was difficult. Live and learn-- tomorrow we will divide them into 2 groups up by ages. I keep comparing these crazy situations to ideal classroom settings in the US, and I need to stop. It's a pride issue I struggle with of "it shouldn't be this way, it won't work this way," instead of "alright, this is how it is ,how can we make this work for everyone?" Our team spent the afternoon revamping our lesson plans, crafts, games--we are still expecting chaos tomorrow, but hopefully more organized chaos. :)

Tomorrow we will do a skit about friendship based around David and Jonathon's friendship. I will actually (planning on) be meeting with the two teachers that came yesterday and will get to know what schools are like in Haiti and try to give them some advice for inclusion. We will see what ends up actually happening!